Conventional orthopedic braces embody a wide range of structures and serve the similar purpose of supporting and stabilizing a joint when worn on the body of a user. When used in this manner, such braces may help an existing injury heal, or prevent future injuries from occurring. A brace can add support and stability to a healthy skeletal joint to reduce the risk of injury when the joint is subjected to undue stress. Alternatively, braces may help provide relief and restore functionality to an injured person by providing stabilizing support to a weakened skeletal joint to reinforce it and reduce the risk of sustaining further injury. An orthopedic brace must be sufficiently secured to a user so it can provide the support and stability as needed.
Patients commonly wear orthopedic knee braces after surgery for treatment of an injury to the knee joint. Knee braces may serve many purposes. For instance, they stabilize the knee joint and control its lateral movement, or knee braces help limit joint flexion and/or extension in an adjustable and controllable manner to prevent recurrence of injury to the knee.
Certain types of knee injuries require special attention. An injury of the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) would benefit from a PCL knee brace designed to provide support to the back of the upper calf throughout the range of motion to prevent unwanted shifting. In a recently injured or post-operative patient, this may also lessen the lengthening of the PCL during healing. For a patient with a PCL having healed in a lengthened state, the brace may prevent such undesirable shifting to give the patient the feeling of added stability. The tension in the PCL changes dynamically relative to the knee flexion angle. Therefore, the PCL brace may theoretically apply a correspondingly dynamic load to offset the tension in the posterior cruciate ligament.
Conventional PCL braces offer a strap that provides static ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) or PCL support, and the strap is often incorporated into a brace providing multiple ligaments stabilization. No known solutions have been provided which offer a dynamic load specifically for both the PCL and ACL, and an objective of the disclosure is to provide a dynamic controlling system for an orthopedic device.
One type of an ACL brace is found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,811,242 and features a hinge arranged to dampen a knee as it goes into extension. A posterior force is applied to the tibia, preventing anterior movement, which stresses the ACL, and reduces the anterior translation. The hinge is arranged to increase knee flexion angles to dampen knee extension and reduce shear forces at the knee.
An example of a device arranged to treat a weakened ACL is found in US patent application publication no. 2014/0213948, published Jul. 31, 2014, and incorporated by reference. The device of the '948 publication is limited in only treating the ACL and related issues. An example of a device arranged to treat a weakened PCL is found in US patent application publication no. 2013/0110020, published May 2, 2013, and incorporated by reference. An example of various systems for dynamically tensioning and preventing overtensioning forces or a mechanism to create compressive load on a wearer's anatomy and associated features therewith in an ACL or PCL brace is found in US patent application publication no. 2015/0005685, filed Jan. 1, 2015, having Ser. No. 14/311,548, filed on Jun. 23, 2014, and incorporated by reference.